Coffee Beans

Luxurious as it may be to sip a great cup of coffee at a coffeehouse, sometimes there's nothing better than a fresh pot brewing away first thing in the morning when you've barely got your eyes open. For some, that first cup o' joe is nothing more than a jolt to get us up and running; for others, it's still a sacred art, even if we practice it in our bathrobes. If coffee is more your passion than vice, you probably take great care about where you buy your beans. But have you considered how you store them?

San Francisco's artisan coffee shops have become a destination for the caffeinated crowd. Young guys work like highly trained chemists behind gleaming counters, intent on concocting the perfect brew. And the baristas don't just rely on $10,000 espresso machines to do the work. These coffee shops put on a show with glowing heat lamps, bubbling beakers and beautifully artistic cappuccinos. They also serve a memorable breakfast and lunch using local, organic ingredients from places such as Acme Bread, INNA Jam and K&J Orchards.

James Gamble, a great-great grandson and namesake of one of the founders of Procter & Gamble Co., today will ask shareholders to help him try to stop P&G from buying Salvadoran coffee beans. Gamble and others believe that tax revenues from coffee--El Salvador's leading export--support the government in its civil war with leftist guerrillas. His resolution, to be voted on at the company's annual meeting in Cincinnati, calls for suspension of coffee bean purchases until the war is settled.

Cash-strapped consumers finally have some good news to toast -- perhaps with a steaming cup o' joe. The price of coffee beans hit a four-year low on Monday. Dry weather has improved growing conditions in Brazil, the world's largest producer and exporter. Globally, production is set to exceed demand for a fourth straight season, pushing coffee inventories to a five-year high, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The glut is helping to cut costs for Starbucks Corp.

The price of your morning buzz is about to get even higher. Hit with wildly increasing costs for beans from growers, coffee roasters are charging more to supermarkets and other retailers — and those folks are passing the higher prices on to consumers. J.M. Smucker Co., which distributes the Folgers and Dunkin' Donuts coffee sold at stores, said last week it was hiking prices for a pound by 11% — the company's fourth and biggest increase in a year. A few days later, Starbucks — which had already raised prices on some coffee drinks in the fall — said it would raise prices for bags of coffee beans sold at its cafes by 17%. Prices for coffee have been rising steadily.

Amazing handmade bonbons from one of the best chocolatiers in California. Three artisan cheeses at peak deliciousness delivered every month to your favorite fromage fan. A whole prosciutto made in Iowa from Kurobuta pigs raised there. These gifts would make any food lover swoon, but you won't find them in L.A.'s toniest gourmet shops -- they're only available online. We searched the Internet for the most enticing edible gifts around and turned up an irresistible selection.

Starbucks raised eyebrows when it recently started offering coffee for $7 a cup. But that's nothing compared to a brew that goes for a hefty $50 per serving. Why does this coffee cost so much? Because the beans first have to be eaten, digested and then pooped out by an elephant. Apparently that's an exotic enough process to fetch a price of $500 a pound, making this one of the world's most expensive blends. The coffee is called Black Ivory and hails from Thailand. It was unveiled last month at a handful of luxury hotels catering to, well, the sort of people who can afford a $50 cup of joe. Quiz: The year in business "When an elephant eats coffee, its stomach acid breaks down the protein found in coffee, which is a key factor in bitterness," Blake Dinkin, who has spent $300,000 developing the coffee, told the Associated Press . "You end up with a cup that's very smooth without the bitterness of regular coffee.

Coffeehouse Chain Opening: The coffeehouse business is heating up. The latest entrant in the county is Starbucks Coffee Co., a Seattle transplant with seven locations in Los Angeles. The chain plans to open outlets in Corona del Mar and Irvine next month. The outlets have a European flavor, with a traditional Italian espresso bar and jazz or light opera on the sound system. The stores sell 30 varieties of coffee beans.

To the coffee-lover, few aromas compare with that of freshly roasted coffee beans. Until now, however, only a few Southland establishments--the Coffee Emporium in Marina del Rey is one--roasted their own green coffee beans. Now, Melitta has introduced AromaRoast, left, the first in-home coffee roaster.

Starbucks, the icon of U.S. coffee culture, strongly defended Sunday its business practices with poor coffee farmers around the world after it was accused of blocking the U.S. trademark application of coffee growers from Ethiopia. Starbucks said in a full-page ad published Sunday in the New York Times that it had worked to strengthen coffee farms in many parts of the world.

If you stay at any of the Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton or Embassy Suites Hotels in North America, South America and Central America you will find only one brand of coffee and tea in each room. Hilton Worldwide, one of the world's largest hotel chains, has signed an exclusive agreement with Los Angeles-based Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to provide the coffee and tea in the sealed packets that guests find in their room starting this summer. If you are a fan of Starbucks or Seattle's Best, don't fret.

Luxurious as it may be to sip a great cup of coffee at a coffeehouse, sometimes there's nothing better than a fresh pot brewing away first thing in the morning when you've barely got your eyes open. For some, that first cup o' joe is nothing more than a jolt to get us up and running; for others, it's still a sacred art, even if we practice it in our bathrobes. If coffee is more your passion than vice, you probably take great care about where you buy your beans. But have you considered how you store them?

The sixth Cafecito Organico opened today in Burbank, and the latest cafe from the local roaster -- which until fairly recently was roasting coffee in a converted garage in East Los Angeles -- is located in what was formerly a Starbucks . Angel Orozco started the company in 2004, working out of Mama's Hot Tamales Café in MacArthur Park, a nonprofit business incubator collaborating with street vendors. Guatemala-born Orozco built relationships with producers and at first focused on the supply side of the business, then started roasting and selling his coffee at farmers markets, and opened the first retail location of Cafecito on Hoover Avenue a couple of years ago, focusing on single-origin Central American coffees.

Right up there with forgetting an anniversary, arriving empty-handed on Valentine's Day is the biggest no-no in the book. No one wants to be a last-minute Lothario, gunning it on Feb. 13 for the nearest box of chocolates. But here's a head start on the shopping game if you've got a food lover for a significant other. A special dinner at your neighborhood joint or that spot you've been dying to try will always impress (here's our Valentine's Day dining guide ), but why not step it up with saucy kitchen necessities like a set of crimson cups?

Since my husband subscribed to the coffee roaster Tonx , no more mornings when we've run out of coffee and haven't had time to get to Intelligentsia or LAMILL Coffee or Handsome Coffee Roasters . Every two weeks, regular as clockwork, a small package of 12 ounces of freshly roasted coffee beans arrives in the mailbox. Each time, it's a surprise, maybe coffee from the Barichu Farmers Cooperative Society in central Kenya ("unusual sweetness, and resonant flavors that linger")

Starbucks raised eyebrows when it recently started offering coffee for $7 a cup. But that's nothing compared to a brew that goes for a hefty $50 per serving. Why does this coffee cost so much? Because the beans first have to be eaten, digested and then pooped out by an elephant. Apparently that's an exotic enough process to fetch a price of $500 a pound, making this one of the world's most expensive blends. The coffee is called Black Ivory and hails from Thailand. It was unveiled last month at a handful of luxury hotels catering to, well, the sort of people who can afford a $50 cup of joe. Quiz: The year in business "When an elephant eats coffee, its stomach acid breaks down the protein found in coffee, which is a key factor in bitterness," Blake Dinkin, who has spent $300,000 developing the coffee, told the Associated Press . "You end up with a cup that's very smooth without the bitterness of regular coffee.

Since my husband subscribed to the coffee roaster Tonx , no more mornings when we've run out of coffee and haven't had time to get to Intelligentsia or LAMILL Coffee or Handsome Coffee Roasters . Every two weeks, regular as clockwork, a small package of 12 ounces of freshly roasted coffee beans arrives in the mailbox. Each time, it's a surprise, maybe coffee from the Barichu Farmers Cooperative Society in central Kenya ("unusual sweetness, and resonant flavors that linger")

Although roasting brings out the flavor of coffee beans, it's a fact that this same flavor begins to diminish as soon as the roasting process is completed. Two recent innovations combat this loss of flavor in roasted beans. Sirocco Gourmet Coffee System Inc. has introduced a home-size automatic coffee bean roaster, imported from West Germany, along with a line of unroasted coffee beans.

Click here to download TV listings for the week Nov. 4 - 10 in PDF format This week's TV Movies SERIES Richard Hammond's Crash Course: In this new episode, Hammond takes on a bull at a rodeo (7 p.m. BBC America). The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: The unscripted series returns for a new season (9 p.m. Bravo). Witness: The premiere of this four-part photojournalism series features images Eros Hoagland captured in Juarez, Mexico, where drug-related violence is prevalent (9 p.m. HBO)

Playwright Stephen Karam has made a splash off-Broadway with one play and been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize with another. But for memorable moments in his stage career, he says there's nothing quite like his teenage triumphs in the Blank Theatre's annual young playwrights competition and festival. "When you see people taking your work seriously at that age, it makes a big impression," said Karam, 32. "For the first time I thought of myself as a real writer. " For two decades, the small, Hollywood-based Blank has presented plays and musicals by students 19 and younger with directors such as Barbara Bain and Jeremy Sisto, mentors such as Garry Marshall and Terrence McNally and actors such as Sarah Michelle Gellar, Debra Messing and Chris Pine.